Celtic are favourites but we must do better, says manager Neil Lennon

Neil Lennon accepts Celtic are heavy favourites to win the Scottish
Premiership again this season but is looking for his side to do it with more
conviction.

Hoops hope: Celtic celebrate Kris Commons' goal that gave them a Champions League win over ElfsborgPhoto: ACTION IMAGES

By Ronnie Esplin

6:04PM BST 02 Aug 2013

The Parkhead club reached the last 16 of the Champions League last season while cantering with the occasional stumble to their second successive title, eventually winning it with 79 points, 16 more than second-placed Motherwell.

Celtic remain on course to reach the group stages of Europe's elite club competition again following their 1-0 home win over Swedish side Elfsborg in the first-leg of their third qualifying round on Wednesday night.

However, ahead of the Scottish Premiership curtain raiser against Ross County at Parkhead on Saturday, Lennon revealed he is looking for his players to find a better level of consistency in their domestic duties.

"I would imagine we would be heavy favourites (to win the league) but there has to be improvement on our domestic form from last year," the Celtic manager said.

"The European run was great and it obviously side-tracked the players a little bit.

"The intensity of the Champions League games and the fall-out afterwards - it was difficult even when I was a player.

"I would like to think we can improve on that, I would like us to be more consistent in the league this year.

"The first part of the season we were a bit iffy at home and very good away and in the second half of the season we were brilliant at home and very iffy away.

"We lost seven games and I want a big improvement on that.

"We scored a lot of goals. Our goals for was very good, our goals against was down a little bit on the previous two seasons.

"You are always looking at areas where you can improve and at statistics and obviously we would like to get our points haul back up to the mid-80s to 90s.

"I am not getting ahead of myself but obviously what we want is to get back into the group stages of the Champions League.

"We are still a long way away from that and if we can achieve that, it would set the season up brilliantly for us and then we can look at where we went wrong last year."

Lennon, who expects Nottingham Forest to come back with another bid for defender Kelvin Wilson, believes any challenge for their title, such as it is likely to be, will come from Derek McInnes' Aberdeen. Lennon said: "I said it last year and Derek won't thank me for saying it again this year but Aberdeen are a big club although they probably don't have the resources they have had in the past.

"Derek will bring a bit of freshness. He has a good record in Scotland, he has recruited well and has got a good blend of youth and experience.

"If and when they get on a roll, they will certainly bring the crowds in. We went up there last year and there was 18,000 there.

"They have been a little inconsistent over the years but at the minute they probably pose the biggest threat to us, as Motherwell have done in the last couple of years."

Wilson (shin splints), Georgios Samaras (toe) and James Forrest and Mikael Lustig (both stiffness) are all doubts for the visit of the Staggies.

Lennon is glad that Samaras' injury was not as bad as first feared. He said: "Sammy got a bang on the toe against Elfsborg.

"He went for a scan yesterday as there was a concern that it might have been fractured but thankfully it is not. We will see how he is.

"Kelvin has problems with shin splints and James Forrest and Mikael Lustig are stiff from the game against Elfsborg but we will see where they are."

Ross County midfielders Richard Brittain and Ivan Sproule are suspended for trip to Celtic Park.

The pair both begin two-match bans after being sent off in pre-season friendlies.

Dutch midfielder Melvin De Leeuw is unlikely to start after his pre-season campaign was interrupted by injury.